Thursday, 31 January 2013

A drawing bonus today, for a total change.
Not a good one at all, but it is what has come up lately.

Now that the Fringe series show has ended, inspiration came to me this way. It was a total speed drawing, so don't be too strict on me.

Piano music playin in your mind

Yes, I know, the art is totally poor. On my defense I can only say that I drew it during an incredibly painfully boring conference I had to attend. I was sitting on a discrete seat by the end of the hall and I couldn't resist the impulse of doing something with the paper and pen I was provided. Hence the awful 'Massive Dynamics' logo, the absurd expression of the Observer or the stain on the circle while trying to make the Fringe Division patch.

The scene makes reference to some moment along the Third (maybe Fourth?) season, the most interesting part of the show in my opinion. I'll give you no spoilers, but if you have seen the series, you would know what's all this about and, if you haven't, maybe you should give it a try.

The drawing needs shadows all over, but that's all I had time to do during the conference (I will say no more about it in order to not giving myself away :P).

As it's a simple sheet of paper I don't dare to colour it with acrylics, but maybe if I find the courage, I could try to colour it digitally (I'm afraid my skills with Photoshop are absolutely non-existent).

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Time for other warship! Today, the Swordfysh. The good thing is that you are already used to what I'm doing, so I can skip the most tedious parts and be more visual.

Pieces painted

Some people have told me that my first step (painting) is usually the only one they did! Well, I'm flattered, I'm trying to make the difference here, I think the ships come pretty much impressive with this kind of tiny details. I encourage everyone to try! It's a little boring drill, but it's really worth it ;)

Okay, let's begin. The Swordfysh looks more like a real ship than others, so the technique is pretty much the same I used on the Heldenhammer. First of all, threads under the mainmast:

Given the scale, I wonder where do they find trees that size to make the masts

Something I learned here is that it's a good idea widening the hole on the deck a little. Just a little bit. In this case the hole was quite tight and, once I fixed the threads, there was no room for the mast. No kidding. I broke it and I had to glue it carefully. Since then, I have been widening the holes a little with the tip of my scissors. But be careful not to make a hole too big! Well, lesson learned for the foremast and mizzenmast.

My public disgrace on the mainmast. No problem, sails will cover it later

As usual, fix the threads to the sails:

By now, this should have become boring routine to you

And do the rest of the stuff: glue the sails to the masts and fix some thread from the corners of the sails to the deck, from yardarm to yardarm and so on. I'm not showing you again photos of every thread I glue, just let you figure it out:

Begins to look like a ship

But it's not yet complete

Now it is

A real ship would have much more rigging

But looks fine for me

As I've told you, I'm not trying to make it for real, it would be absurd on a fantasy ship. But transmitting the idea of a more complete model makes it work for good, so I'm satisfied.

Monday, 28 January 2013

Here are the Stormboyz. Back in time when WH40K was intended to provide just fun, Orks were messy almost ridiculous guys which could do anything on the tabletop... but what you expected from them. They were great.

The Stormboyz are the youngest Orks of the tribe and, rebel as they are because of their youth, they don't show any respect for traditions and the lifestyle of their elders. Because of that, they join up in groups and show an extreme... discipline and martial proud! They wear an uniform and march and train as obedient soldiers. Fortunately, when they get old, they abandon these silly ideas and begin behaving as adults XDDDD

Ahh, silly youth...

Here they are depicted in their classic colours, with grey uniforms and red weapons. 80's and early 90's were the age of bright colours. As a part of their funny aspect, their uniforms resemble german ones, to reinforce the idea of discipline and a well trained unit. Once again, these minis are much more charming that the current ones that replaced them.

The Kommandos are infiltrator units that use stealth to strike the enemy. They even understand the concept of camouflage -or something similar. As I previously did with the Goffs, I used an Ork Nob from the Black Reach box to fill in the numbers. As the mini has the modern aspect, I had to work on it to make it look more second edition:

Come to the tailor for an uniform

Under the greenstuff there is a mini, believe me

I had to give the Ork a 'youth' treatment again, to avoid wrinkles and try to soften the face. It was going to be a 2nd ed. Ork, after all.

Making people look younger to make them look older... Paradox!

The back looked this way:

I wonder what he is carrying in that backpack

And the -almost- final aspect was this:

Ready to paint

I doubted what kind of camo pattern was most appropiate. I first thought of the classic one, black and red, but I discarded it. I went for some kind of 'usable' camouflage, almost serious real one.

Too dark and plain, not Orkish at all

I went on a grey and green basis with spots in different browns. I know that it looks a little pale and dull, but I was going for the red weapons and so later, so I thought it was a correct way to emphasize those aspects, making the observer focus on that and avoiding a completely full coloured mini.

Now it's beginning to look different, ain't it?

As you can see, I replaced the Nob's gun and made a little work on the axe to make ir more similar to the other guys. The final result is this:

We don't look so bad!

Though the current minis that replaced these have some funny interesting details, once again I still prefer the old ones.

I believe I'll show you some even older minis between the ships, I have some RT Orks awaiting for their moment to show up...

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Back to a little old flavour today. Not absolute old, but quite enough ;)

I've just finished these 2nd Ed. Ork characters. First of all, the iconic Ghazghkull Thraka:

Chubby and funny. That's an Ork!

The character of Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka was originally developed long time ago for the "Waaagh: Orks" book. From the first conversion by Andy Chambers urged the necessity to sculpt a full mini, this one, which was released for the Second Edition of the game. This is the Ork Warboss par excellence, absolutely charismatic with his companion Makari the banner bearer Gretchin. Though the current mini that replaced this oe -the armoured giant, is quite imposing indeed, I still find this set totally representative of an era.

The next mini is Zodgrod Wortsnagga, other mini released for the Second Edition.

Bright eye-hurting colours. The only way to paint an Ork

With a funny background on its back, this is a full detailed mini again. Though it's classically represented with blue "hair", I decided to try red, I thik it also works for this model. The back banner, as the one the Gretchin is bearing in the previous pic, is just made of paper.

This other mini is a Painboy -or a Mad Dok. I find Ork position names quite revelling :P

Da Doktor is in...

I went for pale colours on this one, trying to resemble a health care professional dressing, but with a leather apron, so it looked like something halfaway between a doctor and a butcher. Now that I see the result, I'm afraid it's too pale looking, maybe it needed more colour.

Stains of green blood all over

That's it, just some minis I wanted to share. I have a lot more of old Orks to paint and show, so I'll be alternating ships with these kind of things and posting different stuff not to bore you.

Thursday, 17 January 2013

As the client gave me absolute freedom, the option was clear for me, I used this wonderful model by Andrea Miniatures. This was going to be a full set diorama, so I also chose this other mini, to get two minis on the base. Both are 54 mm. scale and absolutely gorgeous.

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No, it's not a Futurama head

I started with the basic stuff:

You know the procedure, little else to say

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So this is one..

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...and this is the other.

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Then I went on the funny mayhem. Painting the kilt. If you study a little about the production stuff, you can see this is the pattern used in the movie:

It was later auctioned for an obscene amout of money

Okay, first time I've ever painted anything like this. Little bit scary, I must confess. I went for the horizontal stripes first:

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I'm realizing... The pose reminds me of Tony Manero

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This mess only reminds me of Jack the Ripper

And then for the vertical ones:

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No way! Too bright and clean!

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Much better

The same with the oher guy

The project begins to look like something. I glued some pieces then:

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So the parts fit in

I had to pay attention then to the blue paint on the faces. I got some pics frome the movie﻿.
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Grrrrrrrr!!!!

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Mad Stephen

The mini does not really depict Mad Stephen, I'm quite sure of that, but I think it's a funny charismatic character in the movie and the model reminded me of him, it was quite similar enough, so I decided the mini would represent him.

Once the minis were finished they had these lookings:

They may take our lives...!

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...but they'll never take our freedom!

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Though I'm showing you his back, I'm not showing his ass. Not gonna happen

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This mini is quite imposing

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Dynamic and forceful

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The next step was the base:

Ugly phone photo

After some putty/greenstuff work this was the result:

Some battle spoils. Andrea Miniatures manufactured again

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Alba gu bràth! (I googled that, I'm afraid)

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I'm really disappointed with the greenstuff grass, I have to improve a lot

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Though the movie does not resist, as any of this kind, any minimally serious historical review (and I will say no more), the scene of the Battle of Stirling is really evocative and no one can argue that. I hope I have caught some of the spirits of it.